By then we shall be on the way to knowing whether David Graveney, Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting have taken the right decision in naming a captain for the whole series, something seldom done even at the height of May's career in the mid-1950s, when he could make his bowling choices between Trueman, Statham and Tyson; Laker, Lock and Wardle.
Atherton will not have such a world-class attack at his disposal but it must be right for the selectors to nip all speculation in the bud and give him the chance to plan and play from a position of security.
It may be no more than the equivalent of a telling point in an election campaign - the real vote is yet to come - but this announcement has certainly done England's standing in the opinion polls no harm. Australia's selectors, after all, are still agonising over whether to retain faith in their captain, Mark Taylor, a decision they will make later this week.
Here is a nice irony indeed. England have lost the last four Ashes series, and of the seven Tests in which Atherton and Taylor have faced each other as captain, Australia have won four, their two defeats coming only after the Ashes had been secured. Only three months ago Atherton was talking of resigning as captain, his batting completely at sea during the first fortnight of the tour of New Zealand after a visit to Zimbabwe which had been ill-starred from the outset and during which England not only failed to play to their potential but made a mess of their public relations as well.
Despite remaining commendably level-headed during this personal crisis, despite his own contributions as a batsman and the recognition that the bowling resources in his armoury were limited, Atherton was condemned at cricket dinners the length and breadth of the land for his apparent surliness. If England were going to lose, the opinion seemed to be, they might as well do so with grace.
In fact, despite a stunning setback at Auckland when New Zealand saved the first Test with a freakish last-wicket stand, Atherton had already found his lost batting touch after 10 first- class innings on the tour had produced only 114 runs, and at Wellington and Christchurch his team won the series with performances which gave renewed hope for the tougher series ahead against Australia, West Indies and South Africa.
Whether Atherton continues beyond this season will depend entirely, no doubt, on how close England come to regaining the Ashes. Either way, this steadfast character, whose stubborn nature is both a virtue and a vice, will not change much. To an extent he will have to rethink his refusal to deal in sound-bites, his matter-of-factness in victory or defeat. His integrity surely does him nothing but credit but he has been left in no doubt, by the England Cricket Board chairman, Lord MacLaurin, among others, that he will have to make more effort to present himself and the England team in a manner more appropriate not only to the media-conscious present but also to the traditions of England's cricketing past.
Lord MacLaurin said yesterday that in future ``nothing but the very best will be good enough for England.'' He promised that touring teams would no longer be asked to go away for three-and-a-half months without seeing their wives and families, as was the case last winter, but warned that ``from nine to seven on match days our players are in the public spotlight''.
He was speaking at the lunch in London given by Cornhill Insurance to announce their England player of the year. He is Alec Stewart, whose 1,474 international runs at 54.59 in 1996-97 earned him a silver trophy, a cheque for £8,000 and deserved preference over the three other contenders, Robert Croft, Darren Gough and Nick Knight, for Cornhill's annual award.
David Lloyd, England's coach, said: ``Alec is everything a top-class international sportsman should be - dedicated, organised, mentally strong, physically fit, and setting the highest standards for the good of the team.''
Fifteen of the 16 players who went on the England tour of Zimbabwe and New Zealand took those ringing words with them to Heythrop, Oxfordshire, yesterday evening where they began a two-day course designed to get them working more maturely this summer and beyond as senior sporting figures.
The seminar at the NatWest training centre, with imput from Will Carling's firm, which specialises in these motivational courses, will be designed to make the England team perform better and handle themselves more impressively as public figures.
Stewart was inclined to hot-headedness at the time in 1993 when the choice was between himself and Atherton to succeed Gooch as captain, but the way he has developed as an all-round cricketer on and off the field is an excellent example for his captain and colleagues to follow.
Alan Mullally is on holiday in Australia and is not attending the seminar but Graeme Hick and four of England's successful A team, Adam Hollioake, Mark Butcher, Mark Ealham and Dean Headley, have joined the other 15.
These four will all be playing at Edgbaston this weekend in the first major match of the season, between England A and the Rest. The first-class season starts today at Fenner's and in The Parks after preparations by all our county cricketers in as balmy a spring as there can ever have been.
Until rain or the Aust- ralians - who do not arrive for another four weeks - apply a douche of reality, hope may be allowed to spring eternal.